This is a high-end, recently renovated, 3 bedroom/2.5 bath (with office) quiet, corner apartment, surrounded by treetops. Unit 5/KL is the product of a seamless combination with fabulous flow and utilization of space. The large dining area is right off the open kitchen, distinct from the substantial living room. There is a separate home office, with built-in desks. Eight huge closets, including a double-wide food pantry adjacent to the dining area, boast custom-fit, adjustable shelving. The renovated kitchen features a widowed sink, custom built cabinetry, and top of the line appliances, such as a Subzero refrigerator and a Bosch dishwasher. The doors, moldings and light fixtures are all new and the electrical wiring upgraded. The crown jewel is the legal Miele washer dryer. 115 East 9th Street is one of the few full-service, doorman buildings in the East Village with its hallways currently undergoing a beautiful, modern renovation. It is near both Union Square and Washington Square parks, and multiple subway lines. It has a garage, rentable storage space, bike room, meeting/playroom and a laundry room, (not that you will need it). You will pay a very low maintenance, because the building has no underlying mortgage, making the apartment a great value. Pets are permitted with board approval. Pied-a-Terre and guarantors are not allowed.
The 3300-square foot space at 313 Bowery now occupied by the Morrison Hotel music-photo gallery — named for the famous Doors album and a spiritual successor to the CBGB gallery that was adjacent to the club — has been put on the market by Elliott Azrak's The Max's Kansas City Co., which netleases the property's retail space from the Bowery Residence Committee.
"The netlease holders are looking for not just any tenant, but one who can leverage the history of the block and the unique Bowery demographic," one source said.
That could mean a restaurant/lounge — or another store similar to John Varvatos.
Patrick says that he and his co-partners (who also include Mo's/Two Boots owner Phil Hartman and Mike House, an architect whose projects include work on Santos Party House) all want to create a venue that "reflects and serves the surrounding community. No one wants this neighborhood to be this gauntlet of bars where you can get Jell-O shots. We are very happy to remove that stain [of Aces & Eights], but at the same time, no one wants more overpriced boutique restaurants."
The new space will have a ground-floor restaurant which, Patrick says, "will be the main revenue source and the main face of the business." Its menu will be seafood-based "Pacific Coast-style Mexican cuisine" (Pacific as in Jalisco, not California) and its atmosphere "casual yet fairly sophisticated as well. We envision high-quality and not bargain-base priced cuisine, but also not prices that price out the average individual."
As for the performance part of the equation, Patrick stresses that "this is not an indie club, not a rock club, and certainly not a dance club." Instead, it will be purely avant-garde. "Our feeling is that it's a genre that really needs to be represented in the city," he says. "Both the Stone and Issue Project Room are great, but they're maybe more of a museum setting than we would like to be. I have a great respect for those things, but you're seeing kind of a presentation of something rather than it being a little more free form."
"Management has been leaving 'updates' posted in the hallway, but everyone has been scribbling notes all over them, encouraging each other to fight back against the management. It's gotten pretty heated lately as it's become more clear that the fault lies with the management."
The large french doors will open to a wraparound sidewalk cafe sitting 40 or so under large colorful awnings. It will be romantic yet appropriate. Think a sexier Balthazar marries a corpulent Fette Sau and the offspring is The Belgian.
I've been approached by a local music booker/promoter about helping get the old Mo's space re-opened as a music venue. His vision is to carry on the tradition of the old Knitting Factory and Tonic, and I love the idea of seeing the space revived for the use for which it was created, and to wipe out the stain that was Aces & Eights. There would also be a restaurant component on the ground floor.
My role is as an advisor and a cheerleader — I live and work within a block from there and think it would be great for the neighborhood. So, no, I'm not "re-opening Mo Pitkin's" but hopefully the spirit of that place, and of the old East Village, will be revived!
The news sent shudders through generations of poets, artists, musicians and others, who felt a strong sense of devotion to A Gathering of the Tribes, a gallery and salon in the building, and to [Steve] Cannon. A former humanities professor, who taught for 25 years at city university campuses including Hunter College in Manhattan and Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, Mr. Cannon decided in 1991 to turn the building, which he had bought for $35,000 in 1970, into a salon and open house where practically everybody was welcome.
"Mr. Cannon said he was exploring whether he had any legal recourse to oppose the sale in court. At the same time, he said, he would reach out to friends and arts patrons to see whether any of them might be interested in buying the building and turning it into an artists’ residence and cultural center."
"Our opening date will probably be in May. Maybe early June, but we're hoping to be faster than that," said Veselka owner Tom Birchard, who mentioned that this new location will be similar to the one on Second Avenue, but will have a full liquor license and be "a little less dinerish and a little more restauranty."
As for the menu, he notes that "Everything will still be inexpensive and casual but we'll have some really exciting items. We're looking for inexpensive caviar, and we're going to have lots of vodkas from Eastern Europe which will be great because the food goes great with it."
